Interview with Sohail Salahuddin - A Story of Resilience and Redemption

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to coffee is for closers. I'm your host, Tim Brigham, and if you're just tuning in, you can think of this as your regular old coffee appointment with a top producer. Today I have one of the greatest champions of overcoming an incredible story and turning into an absolutely amazing force to be reckoned with. Today I have with me Sohail Salahuddin, an amazing, top producing realtor. [00:00:33] Speaker B: Hey, man, thank you. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Great to have you on the show. [00:00:35] Speaker B: That was lovely. I wish I heard that more often. I feel a lot better. [00:00:38] Speaker A: I'll call you every day if you'd like. It's no problem, dude. [00:00:41] Speaker B: That is a contribution. Thank you. [00:00:44] Speaker A: For those who don't know who you are, we start with numbers. Always. Please tell the audience, what did you do last year? [00:00:51] Speaker B: Yeah, last year I did 96 transactions. Our team, I have a small team. It's not like I have a big team. I have one full time person, two part time people, and my operations person, who's my wife. 96 transactions. Last year, 2021, we did 156 with three people. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Wow. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Wow. That's incredible. [00:01:11] Speaker B: And so typically, it's well over 100 every single year up until, of course, Covid limited inventory. So our numbers have been down. Yeah. [00:01:22] Speaker A: Everybody's number 96 is still incredible given what's going on. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah. No, it surprised me, trust me, when I heard the numbers from my brokerage, because that's how I got the info. It was surprising. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Consistency is always amazing. Right? The people who are always at the top, the ones who are what we consider top producers. Right. It's a consistent thing. It's not just a one year and then it falls apart. What do you attribute that to? [00:01:49] Speaker B: Work ethic. Yeah. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Work ethic. Fair enough. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Work ethic. Right. Secondly, systems and having processes and running your business as streamlined as possible, like a real business. Like I said, three people, 156 transactions. You don't need a lot of people. You actually want to run your business as efficient as possible. And I like to use the term force multipliers. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Right. Okay. [00:02:15] Speaker B: And for anybody watching doesn't know, force Multipliers is a military term. And think about this. It's where the United States military will send a special ops team of eight people, right? Eight or ten people into another country to take down 500. That's efficiency. [00:02:31] Speaker A: It's like the Joey's Diaz thing. To take over a country, you only need three bad mother. That's it. [00:02:37] Speaker B: And frankly, the more people we have that aren't producing, just you're losing momentum. You're wasting time with them, because that's what people who don't produce do, they tend to take up your time and not do anything with it. You've been there, I'm sure, as a business owner. And so, yeah, just really good people can do incredible things. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I think talking with some agents, you realize, scratch that, my own mistakes, is that you'll learn that growth isn't always better. Right. Strategic growth, hiring the right people, figuring out quickly whether or not they're the right people, and then making the decision, because otherwise it can drag you way down. You can have a whole bunch of people that equate up to the same numbers. That's a math problem. Right. [00:03:22] Speaker B: That's a math problem. 1000%. And then if you're running a team, and let's just say you have a big team and the numbers are big, but if you look at per agent, you're diluting the possibilities for your team by not letting them live to their own full potential. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:35] Speaker B: And if people aren't living to their full potential, then you need to get rid of them because they're not the right fit for your team. [00:03:40] Speaker A: So I'd love to get into strategies with you, but first off, I'd love to hear who you are. How did, how did you get into this business? Where do you come from? What's your story? [00:03:49] Speaker B: I accidentally fell into the business, so I'll just kind of go. My background is actually in it. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:03:54] Speaker B: So I graduated with my bachelor's degree in network engineering. Okay. I did part of my of graduate school, but I never finished and had a number of different businesses because I felt like I always had the entrepreneurial spirit in me from little personal training companies. I had a production company at one time that, it's a whole nother story. That'll be a whole nother topic one day. It's a good one. [00:04:17] Speaker A: Fair enough. [00:04:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And what happened was I went through some really challenging times in my life. I've actually hit rock bottom three times. [00:04:24] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And pulled myself out one time being, I'll just go there. One time being out of federal prison, kind of homeless, and didn't know what to do. And a friend of mine said, hey, my wife's doing mortgages, maybe let's stop here. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Hold on. What happened? [00:04:43] Speaker B: So I was actually a really good kid. Really good kid. And then life hits you. [00:04:50] Speaker A: You don't strike me as somebody who's been to prison. Right. But I've heard this story, and I think our audience is going to be blown away. Yeah. [00:04:56] Speaker B: And we can tell a story in there that I think will catch everybody's attention. And it's a true story. But what happened was I grew up in a very affluent family. My father was an international architect. He worked for the largest construction company in the world, based out of Saudi Arabia. My mother, her background is italian and some French. And my dad and my mom met in college. He was here for studies, but he was a citizen of Saudi. So what happened was, from before I was born, up until I was about, like, 1213 years old or so, he worked in Saudi Arabia. So he would go there for three months, come here for a month, and he would have a month with us. No work. And then that was my life, my entire childhood. So my mom really raised us by herself. It was me. I have a brother and a sister. [00:05:44] Speaker A: She's probably a strong woman. That's incredible. [00:05:48] Speaker B: In a way, she is. But in a way, you're like, she's such a pushover. Just the most loving, angelic woman you could ever imagine. She still lives to me today. Yeah. I take care of her. Anybody that meets her is just like. They feel this incredible spirit within her. The most selfless person I've ever met in my life. [00:06:07] Speaker A: Wow. [00:06:08] Speaker B: Like, truly, she's taught me a lot about that. But what happened was my dad wasn't being fair. He wasn't treating my mom fairly. And so one day, my mom ended up leaving him. [00:06:19] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:06:19] Speaker B: And she didn't tell me, so it kind of sidetracked me. And she was everything to me because I was so close to her, because she raised me by herself, and I'm a mama's boy. And so what happened was, when that happened, my dad fell into a deep depression. Well, first, my brother passed away in 1989 on a motorcycle. [00:06:38] Speaker A: I'm sorry. [00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And that just changed the whole we're close knit family, and that just changed everything. And so eventually, my mom ended up believing my dad. He went to a deep depression. And my living situation, it was just me and my dad living in this. At the time, it was a relatively big house. Because you're small, things look bigger today. When I go to the house, it's actually not that big anymore. And he would come home from work, not really say much to me, go in his room, lock the door, and that was my life for a number of months. Eventually, he ended up being introduced to a woman that was 30 years younger than him. He moved out, left me in this house by myself. I was 18 or 19 years old. [00:07:18] Speaker A: You were 19, in the house by yourself? [00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:20] Speaker A: That sounds dangerous. [00:07:22] Speaker B: It was very dangerous. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Wow. [00:07:23] Speaker B: When you're 19. [00:07:24] Speaker A: I was an idiot. I was a complete moron. I had no idea. Idiot. But you think you know everything at that point, right? [00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah. But the one thing I had is that I was so into bodybuilding. So I was super disciplined. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Okay. [00:07:34] Speaker B: I was just lonely. [00:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:07:36] Speaker B: So I would have friends come over, they would come hang out. So my house became the hangout house. One friend brought another friend. And so I kind of got mixed into just a bad environment. But I was still very disciplined. Like, I didn't drink, I didn't do anything. And I had all that opportunity to do anything that you could imagine. [00:07:55] Speaker A: Okay. [00:07:55] Speaker B: But I steered clear away from it. [00:07:57] Speaker A: Wow. [00:07:57] Speaker B: Yeah. But I was so into bodybuilding that what happened was, now I just want everybody that's watching this to know I'm not a saint. There's a number of things that I probably should have been in trouble for, but this wasn't one of them. [00:08:12] Speaker A: Okay. Wow. [00:08:14] Speaker B: What happened was I was ordering bodybuilding supplements. Protein powder, vitamins, et cetera. [00:08:19] Speaker A: We all do. [00:08:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:21] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:21] Speaker B: From a website called body. Sorry, bestbysupplements.com. That's the name of the website. Okay. And so one of the other things that I ordered, which used to be at GNC, but they took it off the market, I think at GNC, it was called Soma solution. [00:08:36] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:37] Speaker B: And at this website, it was called verb. It was called verb 5.0. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:44] Speaker B: Same type of product. And I was ordering that product, too. Right. And we're talking about over the course of many years, ordering that product. Right. My life was. [00:08:55] Speaker A: And what did it do for you. [00:08:58] Speaker B: The intention of the product? Was it released growth hormone, helped you sleep, burned body fat. [00:09:03] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. That's what most men. [00:09:06] Speaker B: That's what everybody wants. [00:09:07] Speaker A: I'll take that. [00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And so my dad ended up selling the home. I got my own apartment. And so when I was at my apartment one day, I got a phone call, and they said, yeah, this is agent so and so from the DEA, and we want to talk to you. And I said, about what? Like, who is this? Well, you've been buying drugs from somebody. And I knew that. I mean, for me, I was like, I didn't buy drugs. So I was like, yeah, whatever click you thought was a break call. Yeah. Because I knew. [00:09:39] Speaker A: Messing with. [00:09:40] Speaker B: Yes. Right. Oh. [00:09:41] Speaker A: So that just pissed him off and made it worse. Right. [00:09:43] Speaker B: So then a week later, I get another phone call. Right. And it was another different guy. This is so and so from the DEA. Like, we just want to talk to you? And I said, well, here's what I have to say. Click, right? So then days go by and another phone call. [00:09:57] Speaker A: No. [00:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And this time the gentleman said to me, listen, right now you're not a suspect, but if you don't cooperate, you're going to be a suspect. And I said, suspect? This click didn't make sense to me. So then I had an attorney that I worked with in the past, and he calls me, he's like, hey, I need to talk to you. And I'm like, okay, what's up? Well, I got a call from the feds, and they want to indict you. And I'm like, what? What are you talking about? He's like, yeah, you've been buying drugs from some guys. And I'm like, no, I haven't. I haven't bought any drugs from. Know when you think of drugs, you're thinking. [00:10:38] Speaker A: Right? [00:10:38] Speaker B: And I'm like, no, I haven't been buying drugs from anybody. And he's like, well, I need you coming to my office. And I'm like, robert. His name was Robert. I go, are you being serious? He's like, yeah. I said, robert, I haven't been buying drugs from know. So what ended up happening was I actually went to his office and talking to him. And I'm like, no, I haven't been buying drugs from anybody. He's like, all right, let me figure out what's going on. So then he calls me back, go back into his office a couple of days later, and he goes, yeah. He goes, you don't know these two guys? I don't remember their names. I'm like, no. I'm like, I never met them. I don't know who they are. He's like, okay, let me figure out what's going on, and we're going to have to sit down with the feds. I said, okay. So a couple of days later, calls me back. He's like, listen, these guys own a supplement. I'm sorry, a company that you've been a website, and you've been buying drugs from the website. And I'm like, what? I go, what's the website? It was best buy supplements. And I'm like, oh. I'm like, no, I haven't been buying drugs. He's like, well, come into my office. So what happened was one of the products I was buying, that verb 5.0, it was illegal when ingested, but it's not illegal to actually have it. It's a very tricky law because the feds have what's called the analog law. And an analog law says if it looks like a duck, it acts like a duck, it's a duck. But this particular chemical, because that's what it was, what the fed said is once ingested, it mimicked in high amounts. Right. So what ended up happening? Wow. Yeah. So I turned myself. Never got caught with anything or anything like that. [00:12:15] Speaker A: Did you go to them and you're like, listen, I thought it was a prank call. [00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, what happened was I turned myself in. Yeah. And let me just tell you how they found out. So what happened was there is a big operation called Operation Webslinger, okay? And they busted this website. They had all the shipping records because they ran it like a business. Right. And of course, for me, over the course of years, I had all my shipping records that I ordered, and that's how they indicted me. Again, I didn't know I was doing anything wrong. And so what happened was I turned myself in. I was indicted. Operation Webslinger was 141 indictments, I think, in 40 different states, and I just happened to be one of them. [00:12:58] Speaker A: Wow. [00:12:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:59] Speaker A: So it sounds like you turn yourself in. Right. How many years did you go to jail? Prison. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Well, that's an interesting story. So I fought it. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Okay? [00:13:09] Speaker B: I fought it. And again, never really having prior convictions or anything like that for et cetera, so I fought it for a number of years. I think it was like two or three years. Never did I think I was actually really in trouble, because again, I didn't think I was doing anything wrong, and I had no intention of doing anything wrong. Many things I could have done in my life that I probably should have been trouble for. This was not one of them. And so over the course of finding many years, the judge said, when the final time came, she's like, look, she agreed. She's like, I truly don't think that you knew you were doing anything wrong. And she said, if it was up to me, I would just dismiss this case and give you, like, a probation. But back then, they had mandatory guidelines, sentence. Now, they got rid of that now because they said it was inhumane or whatever the case may be. [00:14:00] Speaker A: This is a perfect example. You just ordered something off a website. You didn't know. It's like GNC. [00:14:05] Speaker B: That's crazy. No, but there is hindsight 2020. It was the best thing to ever happen to me. [00:14:12] Speaker A: All right. What did you end up doing? [00:14:15] Speaker B: So they gave me, actually, boot camp. [00:14:17] Speaker A: Boot camp. Okay. [00:14:18] Speaker B: They gave me boot camp. I fell into a major depression, okay? I was engaged. I just had my first child, and. [00:14:24] Speaker A: It'S all taken away. [00:14:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, yeah, it was kind of in my mind, but what happened was. [00:14:29] Speaker A: What is boot camp? How long do you do boot camp? [00:14:30] Speaker B: So boot camp is six months boot camp. [00:14:32] Speaker A: Okay. Oh, wow. [00:14:33] Speaker B: Six months halfway house and then six months house arrest. So it was 18 months. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:37] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:38] Speaker B: But what happened was, and I was all set to go to boot camp. The one person who I thought I could rely on, the person I was going to be marrying, basic, was like, yeah, I'm out. [00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm out. [00:14:51] Speaker B: And it wasn't a nice. I'm out. It was like, when you're in there, I hope they. And I was like, yeah, it was a very vicious. Maybe that was how she was able to kind of detach from me. But what happened is I fell into a bad depression and I've never been in trouble. I know this is just very. [00:15:10] Speaker A: Anybody would. You just had everything change. [00:15:12] Speaker B: But I know this is a very. Just weak. I'm trying to think of the word. What's the right word for, like, a weak person? [00:15:22] Speaker A: Well, somebody who is. [00:15:24] Speaker B: What's the opposite of courage? [00:15:26] Speaker A: You're afraid. [00:15:27] Speaker B: No fear. [00:15:29] Speaker A: You're afraid. You're just depressed. Right. [00:15:31] Speaker B: Yeah. But anyways, so it was a very weak position that I put myself into, just mentally and so my fragile almost. [00:15:38] Speaker A: Right. I mean, that sounds like a wimpy thing. Yeah. Okay, fair enough. [00:15:42] Speaker B: I just can't think of the word. It might be the spotlights. [00:15:45] Speaker A: It's okay. [00:15:45] Speaker B: But what happened was I thought to myself, I'll just kill myself. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah, wow. So I was supposed to turn myself in on a Saturday to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. It's called self reporting, where I just fly in. I turn myself in, and it was a Friday, and I'm like, you know what? I'm not even going to book a flight. I'm just going to kill myself. [00:16:08] Speaker A: Holy shit. [00:16:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And it didn't work. I tried. It didn't work. [00:16:11] Speaker A: Yeah, you tried. [00:16:12] Speaker B: I tried. I tried. It didn't work. So what happened was that Saturday, some friends came over. They kind of made me feel better. They got me out of the house. And that Monday, over the weekend, that Monday, I called my attorney and I said, hey, Robert. I'm like, I didn't go. And he goes, who is this? I'm like, it's Sohail Salahudin. What do you mean you didn't go? I'm like, I didn't go. He goes, you got to be the stupidest mother effort. He mother effed me for ten minutes. And then he said, I'll call you back. I said, okay, call me back. And he said, tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.m. You turn yourself into the MCc, the Metropolitan Correctional Center. I said, okay. So the next day, I turned myself in. It was all very surreal, and it's hard to explain, but nobody can understand what it feels like until the literally bar doors shut. And that's it. [00:17:04] Speaker A: That's it. [00:17:05] Speaker B: That's it. So I turned myself into the Thompson center, and they put me in a holding cell from 10:00 a.m. To 05:00 p.m. Another guy came in, like, maybe in the afternoon. He and I, we cried together. He was an older gentleman. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:17:20] Speaker B: He was crying. I was crying. [00:17:22] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:17:23] Speaker B: And there was a window across. So it was the holding cell and then a hallway, and there was a window, and you could see outside, and the bars were there. So that's when you start to realize. That's when it hits you. That's it. So what happened was, because I didn't really have a destination to go to. I spent three months at the metro polishing Correctional center. By the way, they gave me two years. Okay? So I could have had boot camp, and because I wimped out of it, and I took a very, just really bad decision. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. You don't think, right? You're so emotional. You don't think, um. So I spent two years at the Metropolitan Correctional center, and I was moved around because they had to find a destination for me. So I went from there. I went to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. And then I went to Atlanta, USP. And then I went to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USP, wow. Yeah. And then I ended up in West Virginia at a low security camp. Okay. Now, the interesting thing is when you're going through transit, they don't really have you categorized as high security, low security. So you're in there with everybody, right? So I remember at Oklahoma City, I was playing cards with this guy. His name was Bill. He was white guy, all tatted up. He had lightning bolts, his teardrops, lightning bolts on his neck. Holy shit. [00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah, real deal. [00:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And I remember playing cards with him. We were playing spades is a big deal, right? Oh, yeah, in prison. So I'm playing cards with him, and I said, God, I'm like, bill, I can't believe I have two years. I'm like, two years, man. I'm like, how much time do you have? And he drops his cards and he leans into me and he goes, I got four life sentences, dog. And I was like, oh, man, that's. [00:19:07] Speaker A: When you learn to shut up. You learn to shut up. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:08] Speaker A: Right? [00:19:09] Speaker B: I learned to shut up fast. [00:19:11] Speaker A: Wow. [00:19:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:13] Speaker A: You go through this whole thing, you meet these people. I want to go back to what you said. Right. It was the best thing that ever happened to you. Best thing to talk to me about that. Talk to me about leaving and coming out of there. [00:19:25] Speaker B: What happened. Yeah. So I'm a very ambitious person. Never satisfied going into there. I had a high ego. Again, very ambitious, never satisfied. When I came out of there, I realized the value of fresh air. I realized the value of just being able to walk freely down the street. I realized the value of being able to go to. I remember the first place I went to when I got out. When I landed at O'Hare airport, on the way to the halfway house, my friends picked me up, and they took me to. I think it was pop bellies. You know what it's like to have pot bellies. [00:20:00] Speaker A: I don't, but it sounds. [00:20:02] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Right? It's like I was reborn. [00:20:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:05] Speaker B: I mean, everything was kind of new to me. [00:20:07] Speaker A: So scaling that back. Right. You probably come from, I love this story. I love this. And I think a lot of people in the audience can really listen to this and relate in one way or another, even if they haven't been to prison. Right. But I think a very common thread in the industry is that I've never met a top producer that hasn't tasted the bottom. I've never met somebody who's successful as an entrepreneur, who doesn't understand what it means to lose everything. Maybe a couple of times, myself included. I've lost everything in my life three times to the point where, welcome to the club, I didn't go to prison. Right. So my story is not as good as yours. But there's something here that I think a lot of people can think about is that if they're in a bad place, given the market conditions that they're in. Right. What if your business is way down right now? What if. Let's call it what it is. It's a struggle in your household. The finances aren't what they used to be. Your spouse is looking at you like your kids are looking away. It could always be worse. [00:21:09] Speaker B: You know what? I'm so glad you brought that up, because I think people who face challenges, we all do, they get stuck in the challenge. They get stuck in the moment. Like, this is the worst thing to ever happen to me. Oh, my God. Poor me. But it's just part of the process, so just go through it. Go through it because there's something on the other side. You just got to go through it. Had I faced that boot camp, I would have went through it, but things are meant to be. I don't think my life would have turned out the way it is now. Hadn't I gone through the more challenging. [00:21:40] Speaker A: You wouldn't be here right now sitting in that seat if you didn't have that story to tell. [00:21:43] Speaker B: I wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't have met my wife, because that's a whole nother story. Who I'm madly in love with. She's amazing. [00:21:50] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:21:51] Speaker B: I have three beautiful daughters. It's the decisions that we make, right? You make one decision, one thought determines the trajectory of your future. [00:22:03] Speaker A: Yeah. You can look at it one of two ways. So it's happened to you now. What are you going to do about it? Or you can sit and feel sorry for yourself. Right. You're completely valid with both. Right. You can feel sorry for yourself. Something bad did happen. I feel bad. But at the same time, maybe that could be your fuel as to why you're going to be a success. Maybe that's why you're going to do what you're going to do. Right. [00:22:25] Speaker B: And if you believe in divine intervention, which I do, I'm a very spiritual person. Um, me too. Good. It's important. I'll give you an example. Well, number one, I feel like the universe intervened in my life and gave me this. So it can change the way I think it can change how I feel, start feeling more grateful, and then lead to better things in life. And I'll give you another example of vine intervention. So when I was at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, it's 24 hours lockdown. But you're in a big rotunda, so you're locked in a cell, and then during the day, you get to roam free, kind of in the center. And it's a circular rotunda, three tiers of cells going around. Okay. And there's some picnic bench style tables in the middle and whatnot. Well, because it's a transition cell, so people are transitioning through. Like, maybe they're going to court or whatever the case may be. There's people from all over the world there, right. And so I went in there pretty big because I was like a bodybuilder, and they don't feed you much, so I was always hungry there. I hung out with these guys from Texas, mexican background, we call them texicans. And they were really cool guys. [00:23:36] Speaker A: I love it, I love it. [00:23:37] Speaker B: They're really cool guys. They called me hungry, okay, because I was always trying to find if anybody didn't want to eat their tray, I would eat. I was so hungry. And in there, people wanted cigarettes. So a cigarette is more valuable to people than their whole meal, right? They call them cadillacs. Okay, so this is prison talk, okay? And I wanted food, I didn't care, I didn't smoke again. I never really did anything bad. I was really self conscious. It was all about fitness. And if you're there long enough, you'll get a job and then you can work and you'll get peanuts. They pay you like thirty cents an hour and you could buy a commissary. Well, I didn't have a job yet and I was starving. And so there was this group of like 20 or 30 younger guys, mexican guys, they look just like young guys, presentable, not like tattooed up or anything. The strangest thing was one guy had, it looked like someone took an electric razor and went through his hair and just left it like that. So he had like one buz cut hair on hubby's side, left a little road. [00:24:41] Speaker A: But you don't say anything, you don't bring it up, right? [00:24:44] Speaker B: They didn't speak English. [00:24:45] Speaker A: Oh, okay, got it. [00:24:46] Speaker B: And so they walked up to the guys that I would hang out with and one of them wanted, in Spanish, he was telling one guy that if someone made a collect call for him, he would give them two cigarettes. So two cadillacs it. And so I'm like, I'll do it. So I called one of my friends and I'm like, hey, can you do a three way clock call for this guy? And I'm like, he's going to give me two cigarettes. And he's like, yeah. I said, okay, thanks. He gave me the two cigarettes. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Holy shit. Okay. [00:25:13] Speaker B: He gave me the two cigarettes, okay. And so I'm like, okay, great. A couple of minutes later he comes back and he's saying something in Spanish and he's like, hey, the line was busy, so he wants his cigarettes back. And I'm like, hold on. I go, that wasn't the deal. The deal was he makes the call, these cadillacs are mine. So then they're talking again in Spanish and he's like, well, he wants them said. And there was people all around us and I said, tell me, stop being a little bitch. When I said that, everybody around us was like, ooh and they scattered like cockroaches. And I was like, oh, shit. And so even the guys I hung out with, they walked away from me, and I was like, uhoh. And so what happened was, and that was maybe 30 minutes before we get in, locked down. So one of the guys, his name was, I don't know. Everybody has, like, a nickname. His name was happy. He's like, hey, come with me to my cell. I said, okay. I walk him up, and he goes, man, you should have done that. I'm like, I know, dude. I'm like, but whatever. What are they going to do? And he goes, we walk in his cell. In the corner of his cell, he had, like, his clothes and stuff, and he lifts him up, and they give you toothbrushes that are maybe like three inches big. Well, they were all shaved down into shanks. [00:26:24] Speaker A: This dude handed you a shank, dude, are you telling me you're about to get in a jail fight right now? [00:26:28] Speaker B: He had a bunch of them. He had a bunch of them. And he goes, take some of these. And I'm like, for what? Now my heart's starting to sink into my stomach. And he goes, dude. He goes, you call that guy a bitch? I'm like, yeah. He was acting like a bitch. I'm like, I did what I was supposed to do. He goes, those guys are mexican mafia, M 13. [00:26:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:26:46] Speaker B: I said, oh, fuck. You know what image I had in my head right when they told me that, you know, in the end of american me, when the guy walks out, and that's what I started picturing, homie. [00:26:57] Speaker A: I grew up in Arizona. I know exactly what you just said to me. I know exactly what this is. And not many people, especially in Illinois, and those things are like, what? This sounds like a movie. Yeah, no, that's where the movie comes. [00:27:07] Speaker B: I lived the movie. [00:27:09] Speaker A: Whoa. [00:27:09] Speaker B: Did anything happen then? I'm like, backtrack. I didn't mean it. [00:27:16] Speaker A: They don't care. Yeah, right. [00:27:18] Speaker B: He goes, dude, you better take some. And I didn't because I'm just like, I remember they locked us down, and I'm praying to God, and again, I'm just picturing the end of american me. I pictured that I was going to walk out of my cell, and then you're getting shanked. I'm just going to get stabbed, and they're going to throw me over the railing that was in my head. So I'm praying to God and just like, just get me out of here. Get me out of here. And so one of three things happened. It was either divine intervention, the correctional officers caught wind of it, or it was just my time to leave. But at 03:00 a.m.. Pound, pound, pound. Salahedin, let's go. You're out. [00:27:57] Speaker A: You're telling me on the day that you called some mexican mafia a bitch, that lord stepped in and took you and was like, look, you're out. We're going to protect you so you can come do what you're doing today? [00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:16] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:28:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So there was many other instances because prison is not a nice place. [00:28:21] Speaker A: Wow. [00:28:22] Speaker B: If there was a hell on earth, I could say this is hell on earth. And nobody can imagine what I went through unless they go through it themselves. And people who have, it's like when I meet somebody and they've been through it and they're genuinely a good person, there's like a special bond. Because if you go through that and you come out and you're a good person, you know that you went through something that nobody else has gone through. So a couple of things. Divine intervention, the correctional officers caught wind, or it was just my time to be shipped out. So what happened is they pulled me out. They stuck me in a holding cell with, like, 30 other people. And then from there, I went to Atlanta. USP. It's very interesting. I can't tell you the reason I say it was the best thing ever happened to me, because at the end of my life, I can say that I experienced that, and I don't. I want. [00:29:09] Speaker A: I want to take this step further for you, right. Because as an outsider looking in, listening to your story, right. And I mean, this is that no one that I think watching this can tell the same story or a similar story. As dramatic as it is, it sounds like a movie. But what the real takeaway is, you know, what? Fresh air, the importance behind that, you know what? Hard work. It's really not that hard, right. It's just continuous staying in the hustle, staying in those things, not making excuses. Because the other side of the coin is real stress, right? Being in a jail cell and as we're sitting here laughing and this is an incredible story. It's a serious thing. This is something that people die over, things like this. And I think a lot of people get real estate wrong, right, where they get so stressed out about making phone calls, they get so stressed out about tracking things or upsetting a client, a client's upset with them, and that just ruins their day, it ruins their life. And they're just so focused on being unlucky or whatever it is in reality. It's a mindset shift of that. Just being part of the story, right? [00:30:23] Speaker B: It is. And so that's just part of my story. Again, people are like, oh, he went to jail. You know what? Save that. Because like I said, I was a good kid. I made a mistake. One of my ambitions in life is to truly go to my deathbed. And when people are like, I want people that come to my funeral know, you have this vision and say, he was a fucking awesome human being. I don't care about money. All that stuff. I can make it. I've made a lot of money. I've lost it. Multiple don't really. That's not really what life's about. It's society that puts the pressure on you about. [00:30:58] Speaker A: You sound like Les Brown if you're watching Les Brown. [00:31:01] Speaker B: Just the truth. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Yeah, of course he does. The whole thing that I listened to it in the headphones one time and it spoke to my soul. I said, most people, they grow up, they go to school, they get a job, they get married, they have kids, and then they die. And that's it. That's your story. Your kids are going to remember you, but once they're gone, no one's ever going to think that you mattered. Are you going to really say that? You come to this planet and that's how your story ends? And I went, oh, man. And I'm hearing it from you right now. Of that you have purpose. You have purpose beyond money, right? So let's get into that, right? Because we got realtors watching this, and now they know who you are. Let's talk about business, right? So what do you do to get your 96 transaction? What do you think separates you from others in the industry? [00:31:54] Speaker B: A couple of things. Number one, I work my ass off to learn the skills to be able to be a great communicator. I think communication. I'm not selling this cup, right. As realtors, we don't have anything tangible to sell, and someone's going to be like, oh, no, we sell a house. No, until you have a house, you're not selling the house. And your job is to sell a home. But your job is to actually help people. And so in order to help people, you need to find people to help. So your number one job is the acquisition of clients. Okay. How many people can you truly help and provide great service to and help them get the end result? [00:32:30] Speaker A: You get paid to communicate. That's it. There's a skill behind it, but the truth is, what you actually do is you get paid to communicate at a high level. [00:32:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:32:40] Speaker B: So if our job is the acquisition of clients, then the skill is communication. And here's why. Because in order to acquire clients, we have to communicate value. Why should you hire me? Right? Why should you trust me? Because this is what people want. Can I trust you? Are you going to do what you say you're going to do and are you going to get me the results I want? Those are the three most important things, right. And then, of course, can I get good service along the way? So that's the epitome of what they actually want, but they want those results. Can I trust you? Are you going to say what you're going to do and are you going to get me the results? [00:33:13] Speaker A: All right, so let's go into specifics. What do you do differently to earn a client's trust or to go through an actual, what is part of your process to where it doesn't come off as we always get compared to used car salespeople. Right. And no offense to them, if that's what you do for a living, but that has a bad connotation of like, you're just trying to manipulate. You're not trying to manipulate anybody, but there's a skill here, right? Break it down for me. [00:33:38] Speaker B: So great salespeople are excellent communicators. Now, telling is not selling what is an excellent communicator? An excellent communicator is asking very good logical questions, but they're even better at listening. So if you can learn how to ask great questions and you become a great listener, then you can sell. [00:34:00] Speaker A: Give me an example of one of your favorite best questions that you ask as a generalized, just to start that dialogue. [00:34:06] Speaker B: Give me an idea of where we're at here. [00:34:08] Speaker A: I'm a new, I'm thinking about buying a house. What would you ask me if I'm like, hey, so, Hale, you're a realtor. Should I buy a house right now? [00:34:16] Speaker B: It's a great question. So let me ask you this. What kind of House are you looking to buy? [00:34:20] Speaker A: I'm trying to buy something for my family. I don't know your family. [00:34:23] Speaker B: Okay, and how many people are in your family? [00:34:25] Speaker A: Well, I got three kids and a wife. I'm a single income household and I want them in a good school district, but I'm renting right now and I don't know if it's the right time to buy. [00:34:35] Speaker B: Okay. And I get that. Yeah. So I have three kids, too. So you have three kids like me and you're the sole provider, kind of like me, right? [00:34:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:42] Speaker B: Great. Yeah. And listen, I want to make sure that I understand this is a big decision for you and your family. Where are you at currently? Do you own a home or you'renting? [00:34:49] Speaker A: I'm renting. Yeah, I know. I'm renting. [00:34:51] Speaker B: Renting. Okay. How long have you been renting for? [00:34:53] Speaker A: Forever, I think. Ten years. Yeah. [00:34:55] Speaker B: Wow. So you've been paying down another person's mortgage? [00:34:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, wow. [00:35:00] Speaker B: And how does that feel so far? [00:35:01] Speaker A: I mean, it feels fine not to deal with anything. Right. Here's the thing. I know I'm wasting money, but why do I want to buy right now? Shouldn't I wait for interest rates to come down? [00:35:12] Speaker B: Yes. So, Tim, let me ask you why. Why waste money? [00:35:17] Speaker A: I guess. That's great. That's exactly right. There's the skill set. There it is. Most people are so afraid of a client that is going to walk them out of, they're going to get hammered. Know, I don't want to do this because of this and this and this. And it's just ask more questions. Have the client understand where they're currently at instead of, well, you have to, you're wasting money. You have to do this instead. It's like, okay, why are you doing what you're doing, right. And have them tell you? Because it is all about the client at the end of the day. [00:35:48] Speaker B: And you have to dig deep, because if you're not digging deep enough by asking questions, you're not putting yourself in the position to help. Our job is. It's not just being a good salesperson is a contribution to others. Right. You're contributing to a problem that the person has. And by asking questions, you're going to see if you can help them by providing the solution. Now, common thing is people will say, oh, I want to sell my property, which I spend a lot of my time on listings. And I'll tell you, I set listing appointments pretty relatively easily. But the difficult part, it's not setting the appointment for me. It's when someone's overpriced and they're like, no, well, so and so told me I can sell it for more. And I ask more questions to dig deeper. And if they tell me, well, I'm just going to go, listen, be my guest and let me ask you before you make that decision, when you're on the market after six months and have not sold, how are you going to feel? I'll ask more questions. Right. And how's that going to help you and your family ultimately. Where are you trying to move to? So do you need to be there in three months or are you fine waiting another year? Does it make sense that you just hire somebody? Now that's telling your truth. Do you want certainty? Do you want peace of mind? I can provide you with certainty. Peace of mind. At the end of the day, I can get your home sold, but I can't lie to you about price. [00:37:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:37:08] Speaker B: So you have to ask these questions to find out really what they want. Right. [00:37:11] Speaker A: You also have to be able to tell a client, no, you have them here. [00:37:14] Speaker B: And that's the point. I'll cancel listings if they're not going to list with me at a price that will cause to sell. It's a waste of my time. Because what's going to happen, I'm going to take that listing in three months, they're going to be beating me up saying, why isn't it selling? I told you it was overpriced. I don't want to hear about price. Three months go by, six months. Now. Now why isn't it selling? Let's talk about the price. I don't want to talk about the price. All right. Let's talk about the weather. How's the weather? Because that's what happens. But the problem is most agents don't know how to communicate, so they'll call their client when it's time to drop the price. So for me, when I take a listing, I communicate with them three times in the first week, twice in the second week, three times in the third week, two times in the fourth week, one time in the fifth week. I have a whole schedule of how communication, because systems and processes and streamlining, if I have automation, is how businesses are run. Right. The problem with realtors is that they're not taught. It's not their fault. They're not taught how to run a business. Right. Because you go to real estate school, you're not even taught how to sell. You're taught how to do mortgages. But why would I need how to do a mortgage when I have you, right? [00:38:18] Speaker A: It's true. [00:38:19] Speaker B: You're taught legal, but of course there's ethics, which I think are extremely important. But contracts, all that stuff, you know how to write up a contract. But in fact, when you're asked a question about law, you're not allowed to answer. You're supposed to refer them to their attorney. So why do I need to learn all that stuff when the attorney is going to be handling that? I need to learn how to sell, market, communicate. And I need to learn how to provide great service to the client. That's what the client deserves. [00:38:44] Speaker A: How do you get in this market? Right. Everybody's, this is obviously 2024, where we've got a very weird time. This is the hardest market we've seen in 30 years. In your systems. How do you originate? How do you get more clients than. How do you stay in business? [00:39:04] Speaker B: So frankly, I spend probably four to 6 hours on the phones. [00:39:07] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:39:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:08] Speaker A: Okay. You personally? [00:39:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:10] Speaker A: Wow. [00:39:10] Speaker B: I prospect, I doorknock. [00:39:13] Speaker A: Old school. [00:39:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:14] Speaker A: Well, love it. [00:39:15] Speaker B: Look, let's go back to the origination of time from what we know, okay. There are hunters and there are gatherers. Hunters ate gatherers. Gathered the shit that nobody wanted. So you have to decide for yourself. Are your dreams important enough to you that you're going to learn the skills and go after it, or are you going to sit back and wait and have, and feed off somebody else's? Because the listers, the people who list the properties at high level, control the market. They control the inventory in this market, where I put a property up on the market, and I have multiple offers, and I have agents text me, what do I need to do? Hey, my client wants this. Tell me where I need to be. I don't want to be on that end. I want to be on this end where I could just say, listen, I've done my job, it's highest and best, and give my client, the seller the best outcome possible. Right. If I'm working with a buyer, then I'm going to spend time to sit down with them and explain to them what they're going to be entering into the market. I'm not going to waste time saying, oh, let's go out. If they're not aware of what they're about to get into, then you, as the agent, you're not doing your job. You're doing a disservice to the client because they're going to go out there and they'd be looking at properties and they're fha 1% down. And then the people they're competing against are cash buyers as is can close in ten days. [00:40:32] Speaker A: Every single client that we have coming across the fold now I'm coaching them on being submitted to underwriting prior to even shopping. Right. I can get them fully approved, because if you're up against a cash offer, that's where we're at, is if there's 27 offers on the property. Right. And if they don't, client, here's what happens. That happens one time, and then they're like, oh, this is too hard. And they give up. It's like, versus in that initial appointment, like you're saying you coach them properly and go, listen, we're about to get in a fight. This is the way this is going to work, but the market's going to shift on us, and you're going to make money. [00:41:08] Speaker B: There's two times peacetime and wartime. 2016. 2018. That was peacetime, okay? This is wartime. And if you don't know how to be able to navigate through this market as a warrior, as someone who's going after it, as someone who's been practicing up to this moment, then it's going to be a challenge for you. Like, I practice for the hard times. I've been going through hard times my entire life. So when times get hard again, I'm like, let's go. [00:41:37] Speaker A: It's really interesting to hear your story and think about making four to six phone calls sounds better than having the bars close again. [00:41:45] Speaker B: Four to 6 hours. But see, for me, it's kind of fun because it allows me, number one. I think of it as a game because I'm practicing my skills every time. So the more I do it, I'm just becoming a better and stronger communicator, right. A better salesperson. [00:42:03] Speaker A: You just said something that reminded me of something, right? So I'm coaching this gentleman who's, he's a great loan officer, right? And one of the things that we do is we get into financials and things and what's going on and just really trying to provide value. And I remember asking, I look at what he's got going on. I'm like, wow, you've built an empire. This is amazing. Why am I your coach? Why do you need me? And he said, what you just said, he said, you know this is a game, right? I said, what? He goes, I'm playing it like I can lose. I'm playing this thing until I'm done, until the game is over. That in any game, you can always lose until it's over. It's not over yet. So I'm going to continue to play the game. I went, I respect it. And you're playing this game at a high level. You're like me. You're like a gladiator. You're out there ready to make phone calls, do whatever needs to happen. Do doorknocks, walk me through that, man. [00:43:04] Speaker B: Yeah, well, look, in real estate, there's all these shiny objects. And I think because I have a background in competitive bodybuilding I understand fitness and discipline and all those good things, which I think that's what's helped me get to the person that I am today, is because I'm super disciplined and disciplined people think mindset is important. No, discipline is the most important skill that you can have, because if you're not disciplined, then no matter what your mindset is, you have a hard time executing. Right? So you need to be disciplined. I'm extremely disciplined. And when you go through hard things in life, it builds resilience, it builds internal strength, and you become more disciplined. So I think of real estate, like, people who want to get in shape, okay, where everybody knows what you need to do. What do you need to do to get in shape? [00:43:49] Speaker A: Two things, you got to eat. Right, which is number one. Right. And you got to stay consistent. Right, right. [00:43:54] Speaker B: But two things, diet and exercise. [00:43:56] Speaker A: Diet and exercise. Right. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Now, it's a lifestyle. You got to have that lifestyle. So you have to be disciplined to eat the right things and discipline to work out. And most people would rather, what's that new drug that everybody's. But most people rather get the latest diet pill or the magic pill or the latest diet fad, when all they have to do is do what they know absolutely works, but they don't. Real estate agents, if they just learned skills and spent a couple of hours a day of practicing and then performing and executing and practicing, performing, executing practice, they'd become great salespeople, they become great agents, but they'd rather buy leads here, Facebook marketing here, social media over here. They're like, you know, spinning in circles. But they're never going to get anywhere because there's always going to be that new shiny object. [00:44:45] Speaker A: What do you recommend to an agent? [00:44:47] Speaker B: And they spend money on it. [00:44:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:49] Speaker B: See, for me, there's very little money involved. It's a highly profitable approach. My sweat equity replaces the money. Right. So you don't see me doing these fancy mallors. Social media is free, so I'm starting to get the social media. [00:45:03] Speaker A: I said, you've got a TikTok out there that's pretty cool. You've been talking about a mindset and all kinds of other really cool things. Yeah. Check that out if you get a chance. [00:45:11] Speaker B: Okay, thank you. [00:45:12] Speaker A: No, I'm saying you. [00:45:13] Speaker B: No, I know TikToks. You'll laugh because I've never logged into TikTok in my life. [00:45:17] Speaker A: You've never logged in? [00:45:18] Speaker B: No. [00:45:19] Speaker A: That's why I just told you to go look at your own TikTok. [00:45:21] Speaker B: That's hilarious, because I have my wife, who works with me now, and she handles the operations, and we have a virtual assistant, does our social media. But at one time, my 14 year old daughter was doing my TikTok because I know she's probably much better at it than I am, but I don't even know my password or anything. [00:45:37] Speaker A: Can I tell you something? My son walked up to me last night and showed me a video of his gaming channel that he created, and I went, who showed you how to do this? He goes, nobody. I just did it. And I went, it's good. It's really good. To the point of, I got nothing bad to say. It kind of challenges me a little bit. [00:45:55] Speaker B: You're dumbfound. You're like, how the hell did this guy do this? [00:45:58] Speaker A: Do you think your kids are going to get in real estate? [00:46:05] Speaker B: I have girls. I have daughters. I don't know if they have the ability to go through the tough times yet. Yeah, they're still young. I have a daughter who's going to be 21 this year. She's been talking about it, but she doesn't have the discipline for sure. [00:46:25] Speaker A: But she's got you as a dad. Right? [00:46:27] Speaker B: Right. But how many people did you grow up with where their dads were something that accomplished things, and the kids were rebelling against that. Right? Like, most of the kids I grew up with that were troublemakers. Their parents were, like, police officers or someone with authority, and they were the biggest troublemakers. And what's funny is now they're police officers. [00:46:47] Speaker A: That's so true. So true. [00:46:49] Speaker B: I don't know. I think I'd like them to go into finance where they have bankers hours and they don't work holidays. [00:46:56] Speaker A: You're trying to say I got bankers hours? Bro, let me tell you something. I'm on the phone just as much as you. [00:47:01] Speaker B: No, I know. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a hard life, right? And somebody said to me one time, they go, do you see your kids going into mortgage? And I went, that means I've failed, right? Because I don't know that I want them in this world. If they want to be in it, I'll teach them. But I want to give them the options, right? I want to build enough with my children for my family that they have the option to go do what they're passionate about. Right? [00:47:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's what I want. My daughters see how hard I've worked. And I say this with shame, but I used to own a real estate company, okay? And it was built up from nothing into something pretty big. And I think it was great in its heyday. But I work seven days a week for seven years straight to get there. And the reason I am shameful of that is because I wasn't a good dad. I wasn't a good dad. My oldest, two daughters, I don't really remember, like, I remember their childhood, but I wish I remembered a lot more. I wish I built those memories and I collect back and I have those, but I don't. And so I understand of the mistakes that I've made. I don't want my daughters to make those same mistakes, and I don't think they have to anymore because I operated out of grit and I was super determined, super determined to get what I wanted. The second thing is, they see me working hard, and so what I want out of that, I want them to understand they could do whatever they want and be successful. If they want to sell ice cream on the corner, they could be the best ice cream salesperson on that corner. But they have to do the work. And so as long as they see me doing the work and as long as they have that work ethic inside of them, I'll support them in whatever endeavor they decide to do. But if they're just half asking it, that's something that kind of bothers me. [00:48:48] Speaker A: You can hear the pride in your voice, too. You sound like a great dad. No, dad is perfect. [00:48:53] Speaker B: I'm working on it. [00:48:54] Speaker A: Yeah. The story that you tell has purpose, because you're using that towards obviously being the best dad you can today. Right. [00:49:03] Speaker B: I'm aware of it now. [00:49:05] Speaker A: Right. Awareness. [00:49:06] Speaker B: But I think it's still a little bit of conscious incompetence because I'm aware of it. But I still have to make money. So it's finding that balance. And I don't really know if there is such thing as a balance. But the second part of that is my kids don't need me to be there, like, 24 hours a day with them. They got school and things like that. If I can just devote a little bit of time with them every day and now they're on their phone, it's a whole different world. But if I can just be there more than I think I need to be. Because you really do need to be there more than you think you do. That's a good start. Yeah. [00:49:41] Speaker A: So, Hill, you're like a big mindset guy. And what I love about what you're talking about is you don't come from a place of that you want people to fail. I have the same mindset. I see somebody who's struggling, and I want to help them to a fault. Right. And I hear that in your voice. Right. We have a 61% attrition rate right now. People are leaving the industry in the droves. Right. What do you think agents can do right now? What is the biggest thing they can do right now to save their careers or to go to the next level? [00:50:09] Speaker B: So, number one, align yourself with people that can help you. Everybody needs a coach. [00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:13] Speaker B: Even if you're at the top of your status, you'll still need a coach. Michael Jordan had a coach. Had a coach. [00:50:19] Speaker A: Tim Grover. Yeah. [00:50:19] Speaker B: Tim Grover had a coach. Tim Bigum probably has a coach. Everybody has a coach. You need to surround yourself with people who are doing it, because if you're not seeing what needs to be done, if you're not in the right environment, then you're going to have a hard time. And what really pisses me off is when agents see what needs to be done, but they just won't do the work. And it's lunacy. It's lunacy because everybody can just hire somebody and figure out what needs to be done, or they can reach out to somebody and say, hey, what should I be doing? And they'll tell them. But the problem is, and I've personally experienced this hundreds of times because I have agents reach out to me and I'm an open book. I'm like, here's what I do. The problem is nobody will do it. It's just like the diet and exercise. Everybody knows what they need to do to get in shape, but they won't do it. Think about that. If you knew what you needed to do, but you don't do it. And you'd rather suffer and go through difficult times than just doing what you need to do. Is that not complete lunacy? [00:51:17] Speaker A: Which is harder, you losing the deal or you being broke? Right. Which is harder, making phone calls all day or having to make the one phone call to your wife or husband and saying that we can't pay the mortgage this morning. Right. [00:51:32] Speaker B: Choose your battles. [00:51:33] Speaker A: Right? [00:51:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And people are delusional. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Who's your coach? Who coaches you? [00:51:37] Speaker B: I have a few coaches. [00:51:38] Speaker A: Okay. [00:51:38] Speaker B: Actually, the best coach I ever had is a gentleman named Steve Powers, who taught me a lot of stuff. Aaron Novello, who is one of my partners at Exp, is also kind of a mentor coach to me. Cool. Lars Heddenberg is also kind of another one of my partners at Exp, is kind of a mentor coach to. So. And they all teach different things, and that's the thing. So you need to be well trained up on many different things, right? If you're getting in shape, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, find a coach that can show it to you. If you want to be good in real estate, find someone that will teach you. But the worst thing you can do is ask someone to spend time with you and not do what they tell you, because that's like a punch in the face. Don't do that. Don't approach anybody and ask for help if you're not going to do the work. [00:52:21] Speaker A: If somebody comes and calls me and asks for help, my first thing out of my mouth is, I will help you, but I want you to ask for accountability, right? Because if I spend my time with you right now, I want you to succeed. I genuinely do. But when we end this call, when are we following back up with each other to find out what you did? Because I'm going to hold you accountable to it otherwise. So many people take notes, they write pages and pages of notes and they go to their car and they throw it in their car and they never. [00:52:47] Speaker B: Open it back up. [00:52:48] Speaker A: They don't do anything. Execution is everything. [00:52:50] Speaker B: Execution. [00:52:50] Speaker A: Asking for accountability, right? [00:52:52] Speaker B: It's huge. I just went through this with my team the other day. Is the four stages of competency, right? It's conscious competence. Unconscious competence, conscious incompetence. Unconscious incompetence. And I think this is what psychologists use to study people. And it's a form of mental illness. It really is. It's a form of mental illness to say, okay, I'm struggling and I see what needs to be done, but I won't do it. It's like someone who's dying and maybe they're smokers, right? And maybe they have lung cancer. And the doctor says, do you want to live? And I want to live more than anything. Stop smoking. [00:53:31] Speaker A: And they don't. [00:53:31] Speaker B: What else can I do? [00:53:32] Speaker A: Yeah, right? [00:53:33] Speaker B: It's the only fucking thing you can do. Stop smoking. I don't want to stop smoking. Do you want to live? Yes. It's like, okay, stop smoking. I don't want to stop. It's this crazy back and forth. Just stop smoking. A little bit of pain. A little bit of pain to eliminate long term suffering is better yet. A little bit of pain to create long term growth is even better. [00:53:54] Speaker A: Do you have anything that, like, any checks and balances, like, if you catch yourself in that spot, right? Because everybody's there, what do you do to get yourself out of that mindset? [00:54:04] Speaker B: Yeah, if I'm in a negative mindset I have. All my coaching calls are pre recorded. I recorded, so I listen to them. I'm a big reader. I read about a book a week. [00:54:14] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:54:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So I read a lot of books, and I could just. Every book I read, I highlight the most important points. Sometimes I go back and take those points and just write them out into a journal that I have. And so I can just easily flip back because everything you want in life can be found in a book. In fact, most coaches have got their information from somebody else or from a book. So all you have to do is just read something you want to learn. Social media, either find a coach or do the work and read and learn about it. Yeah, it's great advice. It's simple. It's just not easy. It's going to take some time, and maybe you're going to resist it because you don't want to do it, but nothing worthwhile is easy. And the second thing is, most of the shit that you don't want to do is probably the good thing. That's the best thing for you, right? And again, it goes back to eating healthy. Nobody wants to eat chicken and broccoli, for example, because it doesn't taste good, but it's good for you. Right? Nobody wants to stay away from sugar and processed foods, but it's good for you. So nobody wants to go through some painful time, and it's not really painful. It's how you look at it. And the way you look at things tends to determine the outcome. And so nobody wants to. It's not like I love prospecting. It's not like I love it, but I fell in love with the process and I fell in love with the results. So if I can hang that carrot in the results, then I can go through anything, right? When I went away, if I knew what the result would be, I would do it again. I have no problem doing it again because on the other side is where the magic happens. Most of what you want in life is on the other side of know you go through hard times. In fact, I like going through hard times because I know it builds a resilience and internal strength. The more hard things I go through, the stronger I become. And that's just the way life works. [00:56:01] Speaker A: You reminded me of inky Johnson just now. Inky Johnson, where he said, if you only knew. If you only knew. For those that don't know, inky Johnson lost his career. He had a signed contract in the NFL, and he had a career ending injury where he lost his arm and people are always coming up to him saying, man, I feel so bad for you. And his response is the same every time. It's like, if you only knew what this injury has done in my life, what it's done for other people. That's what you're saying, is that if you only knew. Yeah, it's a crazy story, but you would do it again if it would get you to where you are today. It's crazy. [00:56:38] Speaker B: And just think about this. We'll talk about the younger generation. People who grew up in this country see nothing but challenges. People that come from other countries, difficult, impoverished countries come here, and they see nothing but opportunity. [00:56:54] Speaker A: Right? [00:56:54] Speaker B: So it's how you look at it. Hence why people that come to this country and start a business, and they're a big, huge success. Elon Musk is an example. Right? Because they see opportunity, and it's how they look at it versus the people here that are like, oh, man, life's so tough. It's not tough. Go to a third world country, go to prison. Go to prison for 30 days. Go to prison for 30 days and come out because you don't know good until you've gone through bad. [00:57:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Team chase to the bottom. [00:57:25] Speaker B: Yes. [00:57:25] Speaker A: Right? [00:57:27] Speaker B: Fail. Fall in love with failing. Pick yourself up. Fail again. Pick yourself up and fail again. Everybody hears the success story, but nobody ever hears the failure and the resilience and the never quit can do. I'm going to keep going attitude, and that's what you need to have. I'll fail. I don't care. I'll go broke. I don't care. I'll go broke again. It doesn't bother me because I'll just pick myself up and I'll do it again. The only thing that I wouldn't. Don't ever risk your health because you can't get that back once it's right, but everything else you can get back. Don't risk your family because you may not be able to get that back. Those are the important things in life. Family, your spirit, your health, your time. That's one of the things that I'm really aware of now that know middle aged is my time. You can't get your time back. And then the other thing, Tim, is most people think they have more time than they do. Oh, I'm going to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow. Oh, I'm not ready yet, dude. By the time you're ready, by the time you're ready to stop smoking, it's too late. By the time you're ready to get in shape. It's too late. By the time you're ready to start prospecting or start learning skills so you can become a better realtor and provide better service, it's too late. [00:58:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Do it today. [00:58:38] Speaker B: Do it today. Do it ahead of time. Right. Not when you feel like doing it. [00:58:44] Speaker A: That's right. So, Sohail, I'd love to hear about what your thoughts are on the future of real estate. 2024 Chicago. But really, the fact that we already have an inventory crisis and what people are saying to us right now and what your thoughts are on moving forward, what that looks like. Nar just came out with an interesting stat the other day that was jarring. If rates drop 1%, we have 5 million people coming to market, meaning buyers. Right. 5 million buyers now qualify. And there's been a couple of surveys nationally talking about what would be the time that you move. And anything with a five in the front of it seems like all hell breaks loose. Right. What are your thoughts on what that truly means moving forward? [00:59:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with that number. I don't know if it's 5 million, but there's going to be a lot of buyers coming to the marketplace, and this year is going to be the lowest inventory year that we're probably going to see in our lifetime thus far. Because 2025, it could be worse. I don't know. Right. But as of right now, this is going to be the lowest year of inventory that we see in our lifetime. What does that mean? That means that as a realtor, if you don't know the skills on how to find inventory, then it's going to be a difficult year for you. That's just candidly speaking, as far as the buyers, if you don't know how to help your buyer navigate in this market, it's going to be a difficult time for you and a difficult time for your buyer. [01:00:17] Speaker A: What are your common objections you're running into with a buyer? Right. What do they go over with you on time to buy? [01:00:23] Speaker B: Some of them are still unrealistic. They still want that perfect home. Financing is still going to be an issue when you're going up against cash offers, and that's what we're seeing a lot, as you know. But the other difficult thing, I think that we're finding with buyers is that they're still having a hard time with rates and still having a hard time with the price of homes. The problem is there's all this speculation going around. This person over here is telling you that doomsday is coming. This person over here is telling you that there are all these foreclosures, rates are coming down. Your professional realtor is telling you, hey, decide now, because you don't know what's going to happen. There's a home, you know, that you can get it, buy it, because you don't know what's coming around the corner this year. Not only are we in the lowest inventory, but we're in a very chaotic environment with the economy, with politics. We don't even know what the next half of 2024 is going to look like. [01:01:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I was talking with Matt Larsey yesterday about this, and I think we all agree that the second half of this year, the gloves are going to come off. We're going to have an issue. We don't know what that issue means. Right. But it's interesting. Right. Rates are still a little bit higher. Right. And it is concerning with the cost of money. But the Fed has been vocal that when inflation shows that it is under hold, they see rates coming down. Right. That's a guarantee. That's a flat out decision they have made. And when they're that vocal publicly saying that this is what they will do, you know, that it would happen. Right. What happens when rates drop? [01:02:02] Speaker B: So they did see. Yeah. They said, at first they said they were going to reduce rates this year, and now they're saying four reductions, second half of the year. [01:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah. That's their estimation. [01:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's changing a little bit back and forth, but I'm sure, because the election year, I'm sure that they're going to bring them down. Right. Someone's going to take credit for it. Of course. Sure. What do I see happening? I see that there will be some, if rates come down to a certain point, I don't know what that point is that there are going to be more homes coming to the market because one of the reasons we have such low inventory is, I would say most people on average are at about 3% interest rate, give or take. And if they sell now, they're going to be going to what rates right now? Seven. [01:02:40] Speaker A: Sure. [01:02:41] Speaker B: Right. And so that's stopping them. The people who are selling now are people that have money where they can pay cash or are smart to the point where they say, okay, I'll take a little hit on the rate now and I can refinance. So I would encourage anybody who wants to buy, and the only reason they're not is because rates are high. Rates are always going up and down. Buy refinance. When they come down, then you have the home. But if you don't make a decision now, you may not have the home. [01:03:11] Speaker A: Somebody that I truly respect, Brian Barrett, he's a budy of mine. He actually said something to me talking about. He said. He was talking to a group of us and he said, I don't tell clients that this is a mortgage. You're not allowed to call it a mortgage with me. It's a savings account. Right. Because every time you make that payment, it's a deposit towards your future. You are saving money for your future because eventually you're going to sell this asset or give this asset to your family. This is your savings account. If you frame your mindset around that, that this is no longer a rental payment, it's no longer an expense, you got tax advantages. You also have your equity positions. But the other thing is that I think you're dead on. Right. What happens if rates go down? Yeah. These people that have 3% are going to come to market, but those people need a place to live. Right. So now they're buyers, too. What happens to home prices? [01:04:03] Speaker B: Home prices are going to go up. See, that's the problem with speculation, right? Anybody who's speculating, I tell you, don't do it. Because if you look at people who gamble, because it's a gamble, right. There's a small percentage of people who actually have the favorable outcomes in anything. So speculation is never. You only hear about the people when you're like, oh, that person speculated and they built this home and they sold it and they made all. Yeah, but how about all the one person out of 100 did it. What about the 99 that didn't? [01:04:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. [01:04:37] Speaker B: So speculation never works. Certainty creates peace of mind. Peace of mind is invaluable. So would you rather have peace of mind and be in an invaluable position or just constantly not knowing when it's going to happen and speculation trying to time it perfectly. [01:04:51] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. [01:04:52] Speaker B: And that's not wise. If you can make a decision now, make the decision. You could refinance now, if rates don't come down and you could stick it out, they're going to come down eventually. Because if you look back over the course of 100 years, that's how things work. It's up and down. It's a roller coaster. [01:05:09] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a graph out there, too, about home appreciation. I'm not going to lie, it's staggering. If you scale back on appreciation since we started tracking home appreciation, it just does this 2008, you can't even tell that there was a crisis. It looks like a blip. Right? David Stevens. The late David Stevens, rest in peace, presented this to us, and I was blown away. I had no idea. I thought they would be this. It's not right. Because if we knew that in 2008, we know now, right. In 2008, if you waited seven years, your equity position was above the 2008 crash. It was about the highest levels where everything came down. Right? So it's time. It's a bigger strategy. [01:05:55] Speaker B: We all know that people build wealth over long term, and people who make short term decisions get short term results, right? And speculation is short term results. Wealth, appreciation, it's all built over the long term. It doesn't matter if you're investing in the stock market, in real estate, what have you, it's all in the long term. It's never in the short term. [01:06:17] Speaker A: And what is waiting costing you? Right. That's the biggest thing. At the end of the day, what is waiting costing you? [01:06:23] Speaker B: And that's the inability to make decisions hurts you. And if you make a bad decision, you deal with it and you move forward. But not making a decision always hurts you in the long run. [01:06:35] Speaker A: I've got to share something with you before we wrap up, because I've been dying inside to actually tell you this story. You don't know this, but you and Kevin Rocio are the reason for this show, and you don't even know it. No. One day, you and I were at the bar, and we were a networking event up north. I think we went some random bar. I think our group was the only ones there, and we were just having a great time. And I sat back, and for those watching, I find this super important. So I appreciate you tuning in, but the reason that we put this thing together and to have you on and to tell your story is amazing. It needs to be told, because there's people out there who don't understand who these people are in real estate and what they're made of and how special it is, how incredible these people are, because you get lost in the glitz and glamour of all this other. The social media stuff. Everybody's a multimillion dollar producer standing in front of a Ferrari. [01:07:37] Speaker B: Right? [01:07:38] Speaker A: What I saw was you and Kevin got in an argument right in front of me, and I just sat back and watched. Kevin Rocio is a commercial agent, and he was talking about a strategy of renting a home and taking your money and putting it into know investment property instead of buying an owner occupied residence. Right. And you looked at him and you go, you're absolutely out of your mind. And started arguing with him and said the number one way to generational wealth in this country is somebody buying their first home, whether it be a multifamily, a single family whatnot. And you guys started just talking strategy and very passionately arguing with each other about the right and wrong ways to do things. The craziest thing was neither one of you were just the. It's the skill sets that you both have developed. [01:08:25] Speaker B: Well, I don't remember that conversation. But if you're saying. Kevin was saying that the way to wealth is to buy a home and rent to. [01:08:33] Speaker A: To rent a property, that was a strategy that he coaches on of that instead, you rent a place and you take your money and you put it on an investment property. Right? [01:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:46] Speaker A: Versus the most common is that people buy their first home and build equity. [01:08:51] Speaker B: Well, he's right. And I'm right, right? Yeah. And I don't remember the conversation, but he's right. He's right. If you're planning to live somewhere on the short term, I would say less than five years, it might be better to rent. Because if you're financing, I mean, the first five years, you're paying mostly interest, as you know, being the professional Mortgages, at the 20th year, it's a 50 50. Right. So he's right. And there's a lot of people at grand Cardone say rent the home when you live in and buy the investment property. But the problem is, I don't think most people are equipped to do that. [01:09:27] Speaker A: Right? [01:09:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. So I think Kevin's right. I think Kevin's right. You have mobility, you're not tied down. But if you're a family, I think it's better to buy a property, live there, build equity, pull your equity out, and use that money to buy another property. [01:09:42] Speaker A: That's right. [01:09:43] Speaker B: And then if you're really smart, and this is why real estate is the best investment, if you're really smart, then you become smart. Tax advantages. Your next property you buy, you do a cross study. Maybe you add some solar panels in it, do a cross study. Segregation, accelerate the depreciation, get the tax benefits from that, and then you just kind of replicate that every year. People that I work with have literally built up an incredible portfolio of wealth by just using that same process, buying a property, accelerating depreciation, taking their money and buying another one. And they just repeat that. And what happens is over time, it starts to snowball. And the next thing you know, you have all these properties and you have a significant amount of passive income coming through. [01:10:28] Speaker A: I think a lot of people want to do this get rich quick scheme they see on the Internet and it's like, no, this takes ten years. This is ten years of hustle. You are not going to make money if you don't have the money. Right? You should not be buying investment properties. If you are not well off and you don't have assets, you should not be buying investment properties. The problem is you're going to have the what if and it takes time. You have to, like you said, snowball it. So you got to start somewhere. So tax advantages are one, homeownership. There's a piece there. [01:10:57] Speaker B: There's many advantages. I know people that buy real estate strictly as a tax shelter. They don't really want the property, but they want the tax benefits. Right. So there's many different ways to do it and we can get into a whole nother topic on that. [01:11:09] Speaker A: Listen, I want to thank you so much for coming onto the show. I beyond appreciate it. I'm motivated leaving this conversation and you're. [01:11:16] Speaker B: To do it again. [01:11:17] Speaker A: You're an awesome pillar of the community and we appreciate everything you give back to everybody. So thank you so much for coming on. [01:11:23] Speaker B: Appreciate it, brother.